picoCTF 2025 just wrapped up and I thought I’d make a writeup to document my experience. While I’ve been practising on picoCTF for a few months, this was my first time participating in a live event. I’d say it went pretty well!
Recap
I joined up with a friend of mine (who, fun fact, was the one who got me into CTFs a few months ago) to form the team “New Team (1)“. Together, we solved 30/41 challenges (excluding one which was removed after we completed it) totalling to 4610/8510 points.
I contributed 25 solutions (3835 points) to our total with the following:
- Binary Exploitation
- Cryptography
- Forensics
- Ph4nt0m 1ntrud3r
- RED
- flags are stepic
- Bitlocker-1
- Bitlocker-2
- Event-Viewing
- General Skills
- FANTASY CTF
- Rust fixme 1
- Rust fixme 2
- Rust fixme 3
- YaraRules0x100
- Reverse Engineering
- Web Exploitation
- Cookie Monster Secret Recipe
- head-dump
- n0s4n1ty 1
- SSTI1
- SSTI2
- 3v@l
- Pachinko
Note
Simple challenges don’t get writeups :P
Our team placed 402/10460 globally (in the top 4%). Given there were only two of us and we were both busy with prior commitments (school, work, etc.), I’m happy with the result!
Reflection
So what did I learn from this?
For one, that I still have much to learn! Despite completing nearly every cybersecurity course offered to undergrads at SFU, independent studying, practising CTFs, and working in a relevant field, I still find myself struggling with certain categories (such as binary exploitation). For instance, PIE TIME and PIE TIME 2 were simple enough (though I didn’t solve #2 during the competition period for some reason?? I’m not sure why. Anyways…), however I was unable to solve any other binary exploitation challenges. I like to learn, so this isn’t a problem - it just takes time (and finding time is always the hardest part, isn’t it?). I’d like to be as well-rounded as possible, ideally not constrained to specializing in a specific category, so I intend to focus on those challenges with which I struggle most.
For two, teamwork makes the dream work. My teammate was able to solve a number of challenges that baffled me. Having a rubber ducky, second opinion, helping hand, etc. not only makes up for one’s shortcomings, but also enhances their strengths. In some cases, only by discussing potential solutions was I able to find the correct one. For future events, I’d like to learn from others and vice versa.